Space Debris Threat

In 2007, China destroyed one of its own satellites in a demonstration of its anti-satellite capability. Today, the crew of ISS is having to take shelter in the docked Soyuz capsule while a piece of that destroyed satellite comes perilously close to ISS. In 2009, a Russian COSMOS satellite and a commercial Iridium satellite collided. Last Friday, given more warning time, ISS was moved out of the way of a piece of COSMOS-Iridium debris. The two incidents emphasize the threat space debris poses to the continued use of low-Earth orbit. Hopefully, a manned spacecraft will not have to be destroyed before a robust plan to deal with space debris is put into action.